Floyd asks for lighter sentence

Thursday

Sep 30, 2010 at 8:40 PM

Steve Fry

Timothy Lee Floyd, who pleaded guilty in April to 26 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, was working on a customer's computer in 2008 when he found it was infected with a program to download "adult and underage pornography."

Floyd, who worked part time repairing computers, copied the porn onto DVD with the customer's approval, Floyd wrote in a four-page letter that is part of his motion seeking a reduction in his pending sentence. Floyd, a state of Kansas employee for 24 years, was a longtime technology worker at the state Department of Revenue.

The Shawnee County District Attorney's Office has said it will seek two consecutive life sentences for Floyd, who pleaded guilty April 27 to the 26 counts. As part of the plea, two counts of rape of a child younger than 14, two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child (lewd fondling) and one count of misdemeanor possession of marijuana are to be dismissed.

Floyd, 48, of Topeka, was to have been sentenced Thursday, but that was postponed based on a motion by the prosecutor. Assistant district attorney Keith Henderson said the postponement was sought because defense attorney Jerold Berger filed the departure motion Tuesday, and prosecutors wanted more time to answer it.

Henderson also said chief deputy district attorney Jacqie Spradling, who has prosecuted the Floyd case and has a "vested interest" in the sentencing, was prosecuting a lengthy rape trial in another courtroom and wouldn't be available until sometime next week.

District Judge Evelyn Wilson rescheduled the sentencing to Nov. 22.

When Floyd pleaded guilty, Spradling said analysis of the defendant's computer equipment showed he had 750 videos and "thousands" of images, all of it child pornography. The victim in some of the 26 counts was a 5-year-old girl, Spradling said. The child now is 6.

Spradling said Floyd shot some of the videos in the 26 counts, and he purchased others. The videos depict infants and toddlers being raped, sodomized and forced into acts of bestiality, Spradling said.

"I did not know how severe of a crime it is to copy what could be accessed so freely from the Internet," Floyd said in the letter, referring to copying the porn. Floyd blamed a prescription medicine he was taking to combat panic attacks, which made him act "without any fear," he wrote.

Floyd said he was taking the panic attack medicine to offset his addiction to painkillers he was prescribed after he was injured in a motorcycle wreck in August 2007.

While in the Shawnee County Jail, Floyd has joined a prison ministry Bible study program and is ministering to other inmates. In his letter, Floyd asked Wilson to have mercy on him, his wife and son, 15, who will suffer from his imprisonment, including the loss of his income.

"Yes, it is my fault for doing wrong and I'm very sorry for my mistake, and even though I made a mistake, I am not the one to blame for what is on the Internet and is free for anyone, even children!" Floyd wrote in another part of the letter.

In asking for the departure for Floyd, Berger said his client doesn't have any criminal history, served in the Air Force, is the financial "backbone" of his family and has the complete support of his family in his rehabilitation.

Sexual exploitation of a child is an off-grid felony that carries a life sentence requiring the defendant to serve a minimum of 25 years unless the court determines there is justification to depart downward, Berger wrote.

Steve Fry either can be reached at (785) 295-1206 or at steve.fry@cjonline.com.

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